Non-native marine species search to focus on Sandwich Marina

Scientists on Wednesday will begin to scour docks and piers along the Massachusetts coast, from Cape Ann to Cape Cod, searching for and identifying potential invasive species.

Scientists on Wednesday will begin to scour docks and piers along the Massachusetts coast, from Cape Ann to Cape Cod, searching for and identifying potential invasive species.

While some of these introduced marine species will never become established populations, others pose threats to the state’s environment, economy and public health.

The inspection of permanent floating docks and rocky shores will unfold in Salem, Boston, Marshfield, Sandwich, Bourne, Woods Hole, New Bedford and Westport.

The search is coordinated by the Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) in the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sea Grant Program.

The search on Thursday, Aug. 8 will include Sandwich Marina, the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzards Bay and the Coast Guard station at Woods Hole.

The four-day sweep is part of a six-day regional effort to collect, identify and catalog marine organisms in coastal waters from Maine’s mid-coast to Cape Cod and Rhode Island.

Goals include developing a baseline inventory of marine species, identifying species recently introduced to local ecosystems and helping natural resource managers prevent and control future invasions of non-native species.

Surveys in 2000, 2003, 2007 and 2010 revealed over 30 introduced marine organisms, several of which were identified for the first time in New England coastal waters.

“Invasive species threaten our native marine ecosystems and present unique challenges for managers of bays, beaches and estuaries; the very places that define the special character of the Massachusetts coast,” said EEA Secretary Richard Sullivan. “This week’s survey will give us the up-to-date information we need to safeguard natural resources along the state shoreline.”